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It's about walking and talking. It's about questioning lives, softening hearts and wishing for answers. It's about stained glass, rushing winds and a billion starving people.
It's about love breaking through.
The music of Keith Green continues to leave an indelible mark on the lives of believers everywhere. The man who challenged us all to a life of no compromises left behind a body of work which continues to radiate relevance to a world in dire need of light.
More than a decade and a half has passed since Keith Green departed this world, yet his music and his message lives on for a new generation of listeners to hear. His example of in-your-face integrity and living a life sold out for Christ challenges those who have followed him down the path of musical ministry. Green tasted what the world defined as success at an early age. Even before entering his teenage years, Keith had a recording contract with Decca Records and became the youngest member of ASCAP. Time Magazine referred to Keith as a "pre-pubescent dreamboat" who "croons in a voice trembling with conviction."
But when the predicted superstardom never emerged, Keith did what a large number of young people of the late '60s and early '70s did: test the limits of his own freedom by experimenting with drugs, free love and various Eastern religions.
All that changed in the early- to mid-'70s through a succession of events: Meeting and marrying aspiring songwriter Melody Steiner; undergoing a true conversion in 1975 while attending Pastor Kenn Gulliksen's Vineyard Christian Fellowship; taking in "street people" during the fledgling days of what would later become the Greens' Last Days Ministries; and recording and releasing FOR HIM WHO HAS EARS TO HEAR for Sparrow in 1977.
Keith Green's musical legacy was rooted in four themes: Worship, Testimony, Devotion and Evangelism. In a day and age in which young people everywhere are searching for truth they can embrace, Keith's music continues to be an uncluttered source from which one can draw strength and hope. At times confrontational and powerful, at others gentle and soothing, Keith Green's music covers the gamut of human emotions and reactions that comprise a life in Christ. And although his work was hailed as that of a modern-day prophet, he shunned that title much the way he admonished others to look toward heaven for answers:
Just as Keith Green served the needs of others during his lifetime, his music stands to fulfill us to this day. Whether we're strengthened by worship, renewed by testimony, comforted in devotion or challenged in evangelism, Keith Green's musical legacy continues to serve as a soundtrack to the Christian walk. |
